A portion of the disclosure of this patent document and its figures contain material subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, but the copyright owner otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to cables, wires, and other electrical conductors and, more particularly, to terminal and junction boxes with apertures, openings, and strain relief couplings.
2. Description of the Related Art
xe2x80x9cAerial Service Wirexe2x80x9d provides telephone service to a customer. Aerial service wire is telephone cable that spans from a utility pole to the customer""s premises. Aerial service wire, however, may also run underground to the customer""s premises. When aerial service wire spans from a utility pole to the customer""s premises, the aerial service wire is clamped and hung from a terminal at the utility pole.
Aerial service wire, however, can be pulled out of the terminal. Aerial service wires are hung from the terminal using a three-piece clamp. This three-piece clamp is commonly called a xe2x80x9cP-clamp.xe2x80x9d Once the P-clamp is assembled to the aerial service wire, the P-clamp is then hung from inside the terminal. One problem, however, is that the aerial service wire may pull out of the terminal. If the P-clamp fails, or if the P-clamp becomes unhooked from the terminal, tension in the aerial service wire pulls the aerial service wire out of the terminal. The aerial service wire may even rip from the terminal, thus impairing a customer""s telecommunications service.
One solution has been to xe2x80x9cbunny earxe2x80x9d the aerial service wire. After the aerial service wire is hung from within the terminal, some telecommunications service providers instruct the technician to knot the outer insulation of the aerial service wire. That is, the technician is instructed to slit the outer insulation of the aerial service wire. Once the outer insulation is slit, the technician then ties the outer insulation into a knot. The loops in the knot, or the xe2x80x9cbunny ears,xe2x80x9d are snipped from the knot. The knot acts as an obstruction to help prevent the aerial service wire from pulling through an aperture in the terminal.
Knotting the outer insulation, however, is not a workable solution. First, the knotting requirement is a time-consuming procedure. Even though the technicians are instructed to knot the outer insulation, some technicians are pressed for time and skip the knotting procedure. Second, when the outer insulation is slit and knotted, the copper conductors within the aerial service wire are increasingly exposed to the ambient environment. Sometimes the copper conductors are themselves slit when cutting the outer insulation. This environmental exposure degrades the quality of the customer""s communication service. There is, accordingly, a need in the art for an apparatus that allows a technician to quickly secure aerial service wires within terminals and other enclosures.
The aforementioned problems, a nd other problems, are reduced by an apparatus for securing cable. This invention helps prevent aerial service wires, electrical conductors, fiber optic cables, and other cables from pulling out of terminals and enclosures. This invention, in particular, is a barrier that secures to the cable. This barrier secures to a portion of the cable routed within the terminal or the enclosure. The barrier has a larger diameter than an aperture through which the cable passes. Because the barrier has a larger diameter than the aperture, the barrier helps prevent the cable from pulling out of the terminal/enclosure. The barrier of this invention quickly and easily installs onto the cable, thus allowing the technician to quickly reduce tension in the cable. This invention also saves money by permitting the technician to complete more repairs per week.
One embodiment of this invention describes an apparatus for securing cable. This apparatus comprises a barrier adhered to the cable. The barrier has a base, and the base has a diameter greater than an aperture through which the cable passes. Because the base has a larger diameter than the aperture, the base of the barrier hinders, or even prevents, the barrier (and thus the adhered cable) from being pulled through the aperture. The barrier, however, allows the cable to push through the aperture.
Another embodiment of this invention describes an apparatus for securing cable. This embodiment comprises a barrier clamped to the cable. The barrier has an upper end, a lower end, and an interior passage extending from the upper end to the lower end. The interior passage has an inner wall defining a passage axis extending from the upper end to the lower end. The interior passage is open at the upper end and open at the lower end such that an end of the cable is inserted into the lower end, pushed through the interior passage, and pushed out the upper end. The barrier also has a base. The base has a diameter greater than an aperture through which the cable passes, so the base of the barrier hinders the cable from pulling through the aperture. The barrier, however, allows the cable to push through the aperture.